Tag: gemini

Chimerism + Twinship

Extremely interesting article I found in my Saved Links section on Facebook. Saved Links is easily my favourite Facebook feature because all the quality stuff is there. Here are some of the more inspiring/quirky bits:

“Indeed, if you are a twin, you are particularly likely to be carrying bits of your sibling within your body and brain. Stranger still, they may be influencing how you act.”

“During early development, cells can be passed between twins or triplets. Once considered a rare occurrence, we now know it is surprisingly common. Around 8% of non-identical twins and 21% of triplets, for example, have not one, but two blood groups: one produced by their own cells, and one produced by “alien” cells absorbed from their twin. They are, in other words, a chimera – a fusion of two bodies – and it may occur in many organs, including the brain.”

“Perhaps chimerism has upset the balance.”

“Even if you do not think you ever had a twin, there are many other ways you might be invaded by another human’s cells. It’s possible, for instance, that you started off as two foetuses in the womb, but the twins merged during early development. Since it occurs at such an early age of development, the cells can become incorporated into the tissue and seem to develop normally, yet they are carrying another person’s genetic blueprint. “You look like one person, but you have the cells of another person in you – effectively, you have always been two people,” says Kramer.”

This article is accompanied by Ariko Inaoka’s beautiful, dreamy photographs of a pair of Icelandic twins, Erna and Hrefna. I’ve picked out my favourites from her portfolio.

ariko4 ariko3 ariko2

ariko1

On her website, Ariko Inaoka has commentaries from the twins as well as her own personal thoughts on the project.

web_twins_textariko5

The Shadow

“Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected.” – Carl Jung

Musings related to something I’m writing as text for my book. I’m going to do a kind of fictional account of the aftermath of Pollux’s death with my illustrations interspersed within. Still processing, though.

Siamese twins

siamese

 

Drew this as part of an exploration on the Gemini twins/mortality and time. I enjoy doing quite a bit of macabre-looking illustrations in my free time and I’m carrying that aesthetic over in my explorations just to see how it works out. I liked the idea of using Siamese twins to see how else Gemini could be represented.

What is my project all about?

Castor and Pollux, in classical mythology, twin heroes called the Dioscuri; Castor was the son of Leda and Tyndareus, Pollux the son of Leda and Zeus. They were brothers to Helen and Clytemnestra. Castor excelled as a horseman and Pollux as a boxer. They were great warriors and were noted for their devotion to each other. In one version of the legend, after Castor was killed by Lynceus, Pollux, in accordance with the classical tradition that one of every set of twins is the son of a god and thus immortal, begged Zeus to allow his brother to share his immortality with him. Zeus arranged for the twins to divide their time evenly between Hades and Heaven, and in their honor he created the constellation Gemini. According to another legend, Castor was killed by Idas. The Dioscuri were widely regarded as patrons of mariners and were responsible for Saint Elmo’s fire. They were especially honored by the Romans, on whose side they were said to have appeared miraculously during the battle of Lake Regillus.

Read more here.

The myth of Castor and Pollux forms the basis of my project in that there are several interesting points to do with time in that one story about the twins of the Gemini constellation. Firstly the dichotomy between mortality and immortality, with one twin having a vastly different perception of the passage of time from the other. The potential of death for one versus the enduring existence of the other, when both twins are physically (and presumably biologically) identical, where the second dichotomy lies – undeniably similar, yet vastly different. It seems almost paradoxical to me that two people devoted to one another should be so divided by relative lifespan. The division of time between Hades and Heaven may also be an interesting thing to explore, though my primary concern is the differing lifespans of the twins themselves.

This is just the conceptual basis. I haven’t yet decided what direction to move in beyond that of an illustration-based project with possible video documentation being one of the outcomes.

Other sources of inspiration that I will draw on to conceptualize the final outcome will be astrology and the zodiac (star charts, birth charts, the Zodiac Man) as well as the traditional tarot deck. I like the illustration style used in all these esoteric things and the depth of meaning that these objects can have. Nautical illustration may also be relevant since the twins are patrons of mariners (as above), which is a lovely twist for me because I rather like nautical illustration and marine cryptids (the kraken, etc.).

Tarot Birthday Correspondences

Tarot Birthday Correspondences

There are cards in the major and minor arcanas of the standard tarot deck that correspond to the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac.

Gemini’s major arcana card is The Lovers. With my own birthday being taken as an example, my personal card in the minor arcana is the 10 of Swords. My court card is the Queen of Cups.

Where am I?

gemini

I’m looking at the myth of Castor and Pollux, the twins that make up the constellation of Gemini. Castor was mortal, and when he died the immortal Pollux begged Zeus to grant his twin eternal life, which is the origin story behind the constellation of the twins.

I did this drawing as a starting point into my project, which will be more illustration-based and explore the mortal/immortal divide as well as astrology and myth which is what I’m specifically looking at with regard to time. I used coloured Micron pens for a change (I usually do black and white dotwork). I am a Gemini myself so this would explain my choice of focus.